Year End Corsair Awards, Part the First
Slow kisses to 2023, as it recedes into the rear-view mirror.
Loser of the Year: “Prighozin.” Warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin the Brief lived and died by the sword. The low-rent hot dog vendor turned mercenary met his fiery end this year in ignominy. Prighozin, who this year spearheaded Russia’s murderous campaign throughout Africa and led a coup against Moscow shortly thereafter, winded up deader than Yorick. His plane not-so-mysteriously exploded within Putin’s Russia. At the time. a U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the crash. Further, after his demise, the contents of his mansion revealed that he had, unsurprisingly, the aesthetic tastes of a Trump. Runner up: Kevin McCarthy.
Loss of the ear: Russia’s Status. Where in the world is Russia’s juice? Why does Putin have no chic? “In four countries historically sympathetic to Russian leadership -- Armenia, Moldova, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan -- the percentage who disapprove now exceeds the percentage who approve,” Gallup’s Zacc Ritter and Steve Crabtree write. “For example, approval of Russian leadership in Armenia dropped 13 percentage points (from 45% to 32%) between 2021 and 2022, while disapproval rose 20 percentage points (from 38% to 58%).”
In March, after the International Criminal Court indicted Putin, Xi of China made a friendly visit to Moscow to highlight their no limits alignment. During the visit, however, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby pointedly referred to Russia as China’s “junior partner,” clearly calculated to rasp. It did. There was a melancholy tone in Putin’s statements during the visit that suggested more than a passing familiarity with being Xi’s “bitch.” And by October, during the Third Belt and Road forum, the asymmetry between Russia and China — once equal partners in opposing the dominance of the West — became evident.
Political Superstar of the Future. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. The Democrat bench has recovered heartily — mirabile dictu — from 2016. The Obama years featured a thinning of Democrat talent. “Democrats lost badly in the Senate and House in 2010 and 2014. And the damage done even further down the ballot was more grave; Democrats lost more than 900 state legislative seats in those two elections,” wrote Chris Cilliza at the time. A lot has changed since then. Democrats have a deep bench of Governors, like Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom and Josh Shapiro. There are also strong Senators in the (possible) mix for ‘28, like Mike Kelly and Raphael Warnock. But the candidate that really impressed us is the Democrat from Kentucky, a state that Trump won against Biden 62% to 36%. From semafor, where Beshear won their Americana award for Best Winning Campaign:
The race was also a case study of how the GOP’s anti-trans messaging fell flat. “I can’t tell you how many parents that I’ve talked to said their kids weren’t exposed to those things in schools or libraries,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told Semafor after he won, referring to Cameron’s ads that warned of child gender surgery and sexual material in schools. “They were exposed to that through his commercials.”
So, yes, there were unforced errors on the part of the Kentucky Republican Party. But it took Beshear’s keen understanding of the state ‘s temperature to take advantage. It will be interesting to say the least to see what Beshear, at the relatively young 46 years of age, becomes.
Non-issue of the Year: The Chinese Spy Balloon. From mid-January to early February, Fox News blew up — pardon the pun — the “spy balloon” incident into a domestic debacle that forced the President, who had so many more important things to deal with, into addressing. Google “Chinese Spy Balloon” and you will see the degree to which Fox News bogarted this damned pseudo-issue. I’m not giving it any more time other than to put this out there.
Consequences: Fox Settles Dominion Lawsuit for $787 million. “The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson told reporters in Delaware in April. Tucker Carlson, for one, appears to think his firing was one of the immediate consequences of the trial. “They agreed to take me off the air, my show off the air, as a condition of the Dominion settlement,” Carlson told his biographer, Chadwick Moore, according to The Guardian. “They had to settle this; Rupert couldn’t testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started.” In the aftermath, hundreds of thousands of Fox viewers left the network, at least for a while. And by November, Rupert had stepped down, handing the reins to Lachlan. Elections — and lawsuits — have consequences.
Quien es mas macho? MBS. How does one follow up assassinating a US Permanent Resident, then giving billions to the American Stupid Prince — son-in-law of Trump? “Sportswashing,” dear reader, is a hell of a drug, as Mohamed-bin Salman knows. The most hyper-testosteronal oil kingdom in the whole wide world went through seismic changes this year, in the run-up top Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. MBS might even call it a “game changer.”
Are global sports fans really that shallow? Or is it just MBS shortchanging the testosteronal fundament? Either way, MBS is gambling that doubling down on Saudi Arabia as the world’s capital of sweaty manliness will distract everyone else from the fact that the country is run by an authoritarian bone thug. For further reference, see the dumb-ass athletes and “sports businessmen” that showed up at the Republican National Convention in 2020. (Averted Gaze)
Film of the Year: The Iron Claw. I no longer watch wrestling, because, quite frankly, Vince McMahon, friend of Trump, hath killed it. Or, what it once was, anyway — small, thriving businesses scattered across the United States. It is one of the supreme ironies of life that Linda McMahon was named head of the Small Business Administration by Donald Trump. But I do occasionally watch old matches — from the Mid-Atlantic and Southwest territories — online on YouTube. The film charts the course of the Von Erich family and, quite frankly, its curse. “The Iron Claw” is incredibly sad and beautiful all at once and the performances of Zach Efron quite simply have to be included in awards conversation. It was a grand conveyance of the story of one of the most successful — and haunted — families in the history of professional wrestling, which, in and of itself, is a pure American invention.
Libertarian Freak of the Year. Javier Millei. Argentina’s Javier Millei hands down wins the libertarian freak of the year award. Charles Murray comes close, but his literary accomplishments are just too, well, laughable. Ah, the children of Ayn Rand. The right-wing populist with two master’s degrees in economics and who seeks counsel from his cloned dogs won the Presidency in November and, I suspect, will win many more such awards for his freakish outlook in the future of this Substack.
Misalignment of the Year: The West and the Rest. For centuries, the West and the Rest have been unequal. The wealth and the power of the one being dependent upon the subjection of the other. Is that era about to end? From Maxim Trudolyubov of the Wilson Center:
While many sympathize with Ukrainians and their suffering, aggregated international polls point to slight majorities in the global south believing that the war is “none of their business” and preferring a quick end to it, even if Ukraine has to concede territory.
This and other international surveys have shown a wide gap between the West and the rest when it comes to the desired outcomes of the war, and differing understandings of why the United States and Europe support Ukraine, Timothy Garton Ash, Ivan Krastev, and Mark Leonard wrote in a major study published earlier this year.
Kishore Mahbubani makes the strongest argument for the era of the West being unequal to the rest is over. Will anyone listen?